i ♥ saskatoon ~ even when company comes

One of my first cousins from Texas and her 2 1/2 year old came to visit a couple weeks ago. I so wanted to show them a nice time!

She doesn't get a ton of vacation days, it was her first trip to Canada and she had just bought a new camera for the occasion. I felt a bit of anxiety. Having departed from Dallas, would she arrive at the Diefenbaker International Airport and immediately wonder what she was thinking?  Would she find enough unique beauty in our city to fill her new camera with?  Was she expecting to find a drastic departure from her everyday "American" surroundings? Would the cool, rainy June send her packing prematurely?

Then, I started thinking, "OK, Miss Saskmom.com, you of all people should know there are a load of family-friendly things to do in Saskatoon!" So, I perused my own web site (ha!), came up with a week of ideas and set out on the town.

On one of the the rainy days, her little girl saw dinosaur bones for the first time (and for free) at the Museum of Natural Sciences on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

She also enjoyed playing in the indoor Fun Factory, which my cousin thought was so much more affordable than similar options in her hometown.

We ate at purely local family-friendly restaurants like Keo's and Jerry's.

The Children's Festival was also going on...bonus!  She was blown away that for $10, she and her daughter could have a day of fun face-painting, lego-building, puppet-dancing, story-telling, craft-making, music-grooving play alongside our beautiful South Saskatchewan River.

We also had a terrific time at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm and Zoo as well as Kinsmen Park. 

Saskatoon has such lovely green space just around every corner, and we took advantage of it with picnic lunches and spontaneous runs through the well-manicured grass.

Mid-week I peeked at her Facebook page to see if she'd shared any insight to her impressions of Saskatoon. She had posted, "There is so much kid-friendly stuff to do here in Saskatoon! Makes me wonder if there is this much to do back home & I'm just not looking in the right places. I will definitely start digging when I get back to see what I can find!"

Throughout her visit to Saskatoon, my cousin marveled at the number of fun and inexpensive things she and her daughter could do together, and I fell deeper in love with my city.

(And, yes, she had some pretty cute pictures to take home!)